Thursday, February 27, 2014







Nonstandard Measurement

As we were enjoying a lovely morning drawing outside, the girls started tracing their feet.  I thought this was a great opportunity to explore nonstandard units of measurement . . . the teacher in me embraces authentic educational opportunities!  You will need construction paper, markers and scissors.  We started by tracing our feet and cutting them out. We labeled the feet with our names and right away the girls were comparing the size of their feet.  "My foot is bigger than yours," Alexandra remarked.  We also labeled the left and the right foot.  Of course, they wanted to trace their hands and cut them out too.  We labeled those as well.  Then, I asked the girls to find five items that were smaller than their feet and five items that were bigger than their feet. They had a great time wandering around the yard, exploring and testing objects. They each returned with ten items and showed me the five objects that were smaller than their feet and the five objects that were larger than their feet.  They were both so proud of their findings!  My older daughter, Alexandra, then wanted to measure how many "feet" our bench was in length.  I asked her to estimate or make her best guess before she measured.  She estimated 12 of Alexandra's feet. Then, she started lining up her feet and found that it measured 7 of Alexandra's feet and nearly 8 of Margo's feet!  What a great way to make math fun!

Kara Tuohy
MW2s and MWF

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Olympic Ring Toss


Olympic Ring Toss

We are getting in the spirit of the Olympics around here!  And, this is the perfect activity when you are cooped up indoors due to the weather, as we were today.  You will need six sturdy paper plates, a paper towel roll, red, yellow, green, blue and black paint, paintbrushes, scissors and tape.  We began with a discussion of the Olympic Games.  We brainstormed winter sports and I was surprised by how many winter sports the girls could name, especially given that we live in California. Cut out the middle of five paper plates. These will be your rings.  Tape the paper towel roll on to the remaining paper plate.  I cut small tabs in the bottom of the paper towel roll and used a fair amount of tape to keep it upright.  Paint each ring in the Olympic colors using the red, yellow, green, blue and black paint.  Paint the base however you would like.  Alexandra painted the paper towel roll with blue paint and Margo painted the plate with black paint. Teamwork!  Allow to dry. Set up the base on the floor and stand a few feet back. Toss the rings and have fun!  USA chant is optional!

Kara Tuohy
MW2s and MWF

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